Pediatric Ethical Dilemma Case Study

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Pediatric Ethical Dilemma: Ventilation Removal After Court Decision Dilemma Description I was unable to experience an ethical dilemma at my clinical site; however, I have come across a few dilemmas in recent news. The ethical dilemma I have chosen to discuss took place in California. A two-year-old boy had a severe asthma attack that resulted in him becoming brain dead after having a heart attack. Although three doctors from two different hospitals declared the boy brain dead, the family asked the court to have their son remain on a ventilator, and then took off to Guatemala to receive treatment they felt their son was not receiving in California. There, a neurologist declared that the boy was not brain dead, so the family returned to California to a new hospital. After days there the court order they asked for was denied. The boy was taken off the ventilator and passed away (Miller, 2016). ANA Code of Ethics Principles Three principles from the ANA Code of Ethics are relevant and applicable to this …show more content…

They have all had training in order to make these difficult decisions, not to mention that they have more than likely dealt with such situations more often than they care to admit. The family got the same answer from two other physicians when they moved their son to another hospital, and they could only get one other hospital to take on the case and that was in another country. For me, that says plenty in verifying what the other physicians stated. However, if that were not enough, researching to learn more about brain death may have helped the parents realize the heartbreaking truth. Finger Lakes Donor Recovery Network does a great job with helping to understand brain death. It lists some of the most common causes, and the third of which is anoxia from an incident such as a heart attack (Finger Lakes Donor Recovery Network,

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